


Zee'Nith

by TheTravelerWrites



Series: Commissions [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Alien Girlfriend, Alien/Human Relationships, Blood, Consensual Violent Sex, F/M, Guns, Human/Alien Romance, Human/Monster Romance, Human/Yautja - Freeform, NSFW, Reader Insert, Reader-Insert, Rough Sex, Teratophilia, Xenophilia, Yautja, female yautja, human/monster, monster reader, self-surgery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 12:59:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15729885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTravelerWrites/pseuds/TheTravelerWrites
Summary: This is my very first commission!





	Zee'Nith

Tau’Rok had made a fatal mistake when he overlooked Zee’Nith and chose a soft, weak, tiny _human_ as his mate. He might as well have chosen an animal as his mate. No, she was less than an animal, she was _prey_. He’d even impregnated her; Zee’Nith could smell it in her pheromones, and it had enraged her. What a disgrace Tau’Rok was to his species. Forcing him to send his little pet away had served him right, and Zee’Nith couldn’t have been more pleased. She hoped it made him suffer. She hoped it was torture.

They were the only two of their kind currently left on the hunting planet, and she had expected that he would mate with her. It was an unspoken understanding; a convenient and well respected tradition. They had camped near each other, but not inside of each other’s territories, and if not friendly, they weren’t openly hostile. For their species, _not openly hostile_ was as romantic as it got.

She had given him clear signals that she was willing and ready, so to speak, and he seemed at least curious at first, but then _she_ came along and ruined Zee’Nith’s plans. Humans were parasites; hunting them wasn’t good enough; they needed to be exterminated.

It wasn’t as if she were undesirable; she was a prime female specimen of her species. Her hard skin was dull pink covered in black freckles that were heavy on her back and legs and lightened as they moved into her upper torso and neck. Her weaponry was befitting a warrior of her status, but save for a long collar that protected her hearts and the traditional mask over her face, she wore no armor. Armor was for hunters who lacked skill and expertise, and she was not that. Her body was covered in only a loincloth over her lower half, where her retractable tail was hidden, and a drape that dangled from her collar, covering her breasts. Her form was glorious, there was no point in hiding it behind clothes or armor.

Her only adornments were a pierced left nostril and a glittering band that held the soft, thin spikes on her head back out her four, small, solid black eyes, glittering like beetles, sitting below a ridge of smaller spikes, like a fringe. The shine from the band and the way her skin stood out from the rest of the vegetation was something she did on purpose. Camouflage was a coward’s crutch. She wanted her prey to know she was there. She wanted them to know they were being hunted. She wanted them to be afraid.

After Tau’Rok had sent the human home, Zee’nith tried again to engage with him, only to be violently rebuffed at every turn. The fights between them were brutal, and just when she’d thought she’d weakened him enough to get what she wanted, he found some way to push her back, to gain ground, to get the upper hand. It was both infuriating and insulting. She didn’t know why he didn’t just give in. He’d already fornicated with prey, he might as well be prey himself.

But after months, she’d had no luck. Tau’Rok was as stubborn as ever, even if he was losing weight and looking a bit ill. It was eating at her. She needed something to take her mind off things, but there was nothing left to hunt.

At least, there hadn’t been. A few nights after her last scuffle with Tau’Rok, a drop ship passed overhead. _Finally_ , something to distract her. Zee’Nith followed the descent of the ship, unable to restrain the pleased, excited chittering that issued from her throat.

She didn’t get too close. She didn’t want to see where it dropped down. If she could see them scatter into the woods, it wouldn’t be any fun. She just wanted to be close enough to smell them, to pick out her favorite. She loved that part of the hunt, not knowing what her prey was, but knowing their scent, their taste on the air, and then finally discovering her foe after many days of tracking. It was exhilarating, and she had yet to be disappointed in the prey she chose. It was always massive, ferocious, and worth the chase.

She was close enough to hear the whine of the engines distantly, and heard the hatch open and the shout of prey being thrust out into the wild without warning.

_Here we go…_

She took a long, heavy draw of the air around her, pulling it in slowly through the slits of her nostrils. It took a few minutes for her to catch the smells of the newcomers on the wind, but when she did, she found it immediately. The scent. Her prey.

She howled loudly, and several creatures around her echoed her snarl. It began.

For the next few days, she followed the scent, keeping on the edge of it but never losing it. She let herself get closer slowly, subtly, until finally she caught sight of it and her body felt like ice.

_Human._

It was a lowly, disgusting human. It was male, she assumed, and hideous. It had a dark shadow on the lower half of its face and close-cropped brown hair on the top of its head. Its demeanor was one of caution and it carried a very large weapon, walking silently and carefully through the underbrush, doing its best to make no sound.

He wore heavy grey armor over his chest and legs, though his arms were bare, one arm heavily scarred. The scars travelled up his arms to his neck and on the left side of his face, pulling down his eye. His skin was a similar color to his hair, a medium brown, though the scars varied in color from eggshell white to peachy pink to angry red. Whether new or old, she couldn’t tell, but it would have taken a strong spirit to survive it.

Regardless, the sight of another human made the fury of her failed conquest bubble up inside her. Her normal tracking instincts were pushed aside by a sudden need to attack, to rend, to tear apart.

She snarled her rage as she launched herself out of where she had been concealed, running full tilt at this loathsome beast. He spun when he heard her screech and his eyes widened.

“What the hell?” He said, his speech crude and harsh to her ears, like the buzzing of an insect. He raised his gun and fired two shots, both of which missed. She swiped at him with her claws and knocked him to the ground, his gun skittering across the rocks of the terrain. Snarling, she reared back to slice the flesh of his face to ribbons, when he produced a knife and stuck it in her side.

She bellowed, reeling back, snatching the knife out of her skin and hurling it back at him, which he ducked deftly. She looked up and saw he’d managed to pick his gun back up. She raised her own weapon and shot. He dodged it with surprising ease.

Growling in frustration, she propelled herself into him, knocking the wind out of him and pinning him against a tree. Just as she bent forward to headbutt him, he used her grip on his arms as leverage to kick her abdomen with both feet, sending her sprawling backward.

She raised up on her hands and feet, preparing to sprint, her tail slithering out of its pouch at the end of her spine to act as a counterbalance. Her particle-beam weapon was behind him, and she was left with only blades. That was fine; she preferred to kill her game up close and personal.

“Alright, you crazy bitch,” The humans said, his gun leveled at her mask. “Back off.”

She growled at him and signed: _I’d sooner kill you than run_.

He didn’t seem to understand, continuing to stare at her with a grim frown, his weapon completely steady in his grip.

“I’m serious, you freak, get the hell out of here and leave me alone,” He barked.

The human’s voice horrible to listen to, she wished he would just stop talking. If she had to make him, so be it. She made another gesture, hoping he was at least bright enough to understand this one: _run_.

His frown deepened and he narrowed his eyes. “You want me to run? What, so you can chase me?”

Not as dumb as she thought, good. This just might be fun after all. She made the gesture again. _Yes! Run, you idiot._

“I see what this is,” He said with a sneer. “We’ve heard about this on Earth. We all thought it was just rumors, but apparently not.” He snorted. “If you think I’m going to let you hunt me down like a dog, you are sadly mistaken.”

Damn it, so he wasn’t going to be any fun after all. If that’s how he wanted it, fine. She reared back up on her legs and pulled two blades from the straps on her thighs, only for him to shoot them out of her hands before she could make a move toward him. The other four strapped to her calves were also shot off. All she had left were the two large swords on her back.

“I’m not going to tell you again,” He said, cocking the gun.

She shrieked at him, high pitched and angry, and he lowered his gun, his eyes screwed shut against the sound, falling to one knee. She rushed past him and snatched up her gun. She circled back and collected her stray knives before scaling a tree. He scrambled back to his feet and sent a volley of shots at where she was perched in the tree, and she vaulted into the next, and the next, until she was out of his shooting range. He yelled abuse at her as she got farther away.

This had never happened before. She’d been beaten back by prey, but it had never been so sudden and she had never retreated to rethink her strategy. This one, this _human_ , was going to take some alternate tactics.

Traps. That was something she could do. She could lay traps for him. Normally, she disapproved of such things, as it was better to face ones foes head on, but this required more finesse than she was used to.

She laid several all over her territory, many to keep him inside of it and a few to keep him away from her camp. Then she followed him closely over the next few days. She had to admit, the anticipation was thrilling. The wait for him to spring one of her traps, to get caught. She was also curious to see if he could extricate himself.

It took nearly a week of almost constant observation before he found one of her traps, but he spotted it easily and dismantled it within minutes. Impressive.

He managed to find and dismantle three more before finally getting caught in one. She had to suppress a whoop of triumph in watching him grit his teeth in pain, the barbs from the mine she planted digging deep in his leg, anchoring him to the jungle floor with thin, metal wires that couldn’t be severed with any tool he possessed. She waited behind the shield of the high grass, waiting to see what he would do.

He hissed in a breath as he tried to free himself. The barbs had hooks so that they couldn’t be removed from the skin easily. She watched with interest as he took a small knife from his pocket and cut the fabric of his pants leg open around the wires and barbs.

He gathered a small amount of the dry brush around him into a pile and used an emergency firestarter to set it alight. He then pulled a larger knife from a side holder and laid the blade in the fire, hilt out.

He braced himself before leaning forward and digging the blade of the smaller knife into his leg, carving the hooks out of his flesh. He began to sweat and growl with the effort, but after a few minutes of digging, he managed to get the first of five barbs out and flung it away from himself with some violence.

She continued to watch, transfixed, as he methodically cut open his own skin to free himself from the wires of her anchor mine. After fifteen minutes, he’d finally gotten them all out, and snarled in pain and anger. He reached into a pocket of his armor’s vest and extracted a quick-release syringe, gripping it tightly in his palm and jamming it into the outside muscle of his thigh, holding it for a good ten seconds, breathing hard.

He stowed the empty syringe cartridge back into the vest and took several deep, measured breaths before picking up the the red hot knife carefully by the covered hilt and, after a moment of hesitation, pressed the flat of the blade against three of the five wounds. The muscles of his neck became taut in his effort to not cry out. After a few seconds, he turned the blade and pressed the other side to the remaining wounds, sealing them as well. He did allow himself a short, sharp shout of agony, but he finally dropped the knife and sagged against a nearby tree, panting.

She’d seen other prey struggle against this type of trap before for hours before they either gave up and died or chopped off their own leg. She’d never seen prey behave so intuitively or act so swiftly. The injury would slow him a little, but he wouldn’t be hindered by it overall and it would heal. Injuries like that could fester in a place like this, but his immediate action ensured that he would recover to continue the fight. And judging from his scars, he knew exactly how bad burns hurt before cauterizing the wounds, and did it anyway.

For the first time, she felt an emotion with which she was hitherto unfamiliar: admiration. She… admired him.

She walked out of the shelter of the high grass and up to him at a passive pace, clearly not attacking but also not dropping her guard. He saw her instantly and raised his gun.

“Were you responsible for this?” He asked, sweat dripping from his brow.

She made a chuffing noise, jerking her head up in assent.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t shoot you where you stand?” He hissed.

She pulled one of her blades, her favorite one in fact, out of its sheath. He tightened his grip on the gun and aimed at her head. She flipped the knife so that she was holding the tip, and flung the knife at the ground in front of his feet. Any being with intelligence would know what this gesture meant: _I concede._

She stood there in the crosshairs of his gun, waiting for him to comprehend the magnanimity of her token. He lowered his gun slowly, eyeing her, waiting for the attack. But she shrugged and walked back into the shadow of the jungle.

Despite breaking off the hunt of the human, she found herself uninterested in picking new prey, instead following him with, she admitted, some sort of sick fascination. She watched him walk through the jungle and stop at a river, not limping despite the severity of the wound, surely knowing that any predator would sense weakness if he allowed himself to show pain. His instincts were strong, nearly as strong as hers.

Throughout the next week, she kept him in her sights at all times but careful to stay out of his view. She watched him learn about his surroundings, trapping animals to feed himself or using them to determine which plants were poisonous. He was methodical and ruthless, and she appreciated that about him. He was good at evading but she noticed he never hid away or cowered behind a tree when he sensed a threat, he faced it head on and without reservation.

Her kind had a tradition when it came to a hunt: if prey could prove their resilience, perseverance, and skill to a satisfying standard, they earned the right to live. Therefore, much to her dismay, the hunt could not continue. Not to misconstrue, Zee’Nith was not insinuating that this human was her equal by any means, but she did have to admit, he was strong. Strength was an attribute to be rewarded.

One day, as she observed him while he was drying strips of meat on a rock, he said, “You know, if you’d like some jerky, you’re welcome to it, but it won’t be ready for a few hours. I’d gladly part with some if it means no more barbs in my leg.”

She trilled angrily and took off into the undergrowth, incensed that he had detected her. She was normally so careful! He guessed, he must have. He couldn’t have actually know she was there.

And she could have sworn she heard his passing chuckle as she made her escape.

That evening, she strengthened the protective barrier around her campsite, tripling the traps she had out and hanging barrages from the surrounding trees. She was tired. She’d been track the human fruitlessly for nearly a week without sleep. An hour, that’s all she needed, and then she would find her new prey.

She awoke and emerged from her lean-to and found him sitting on a stump inside her camp using the knife she had given him to whittle a rough fishing spear.

“Morning,” He called brightly. She screamed and advanced on him, only for him to raise his weapon with his other hand and aim it at her abdomen. “Now, now, play nice.”

Her head swiveled to look for her perimeter traps, and she found several were missing.

“Looking for these?” He asked, holding them up by the wires. He must have remotely triggered the mechanism somehow. Strange, they were supposed to raise an alarm when they were tripped. “Sorry, once I knew what to look for, these were easy to spot and dismantle. You’re lucky I decided to bring them back to you. Back on Earth, these would net me a small fortune.”

She trilled with frustration. _Why are you here?_ She signed at him.

“I don’t know why you insist on doing that, you know I can’t understand you.”

She made a short, sharp grunt and took two steps forward, very deliberately pointing at him, the surroundings, and spreading her arms wide in question. _You. Here. Why?_

“Ah, I see,” He said, putting the knife on a makeshift sheath. It looked like he had woven it from thick, dried river fronds. “Well, you seem to be the biggest, baddest thing in this jungle, and since you seem to have given up trying to kill me, it makes more sense to stick around you. It’s just basic survival tactics. You don’t poke the bear, but if you watch them long enough, they will show you the best places to fish.”

Her head rocked back and she chuffed in surprise. Did he really intent to… move in? Was he suicidal? He hadn’t seemed to be when he did the surgery on himself.

“Don’t worry, I won’t cramp your style,” He said. “I’m just letting you know I’m in the neighborhood. I might come by to borrow a cup of sugar or an energy core or two. I’m Royce, by the way.”

He stood up and hooked his newly carved spear over his shoulders. “Going fishing now. I might bring you one back. If I feel like it.” He grinned, the scars on the left side of his face pulling taut as he did, and stomped off into the brush.

She kicked the dismantled traps, enraged. They bounced off of the nearest tree, and their alarms went off.

_Really?_

She spent the next few hours repairing the traps in her tent, fuming. She didn’t have time for this. If she didn’t find prey from this cycle, she’d lose her perfect record. That was unacceptable. She exited the tent to find two fish neatly placed on the stump where the human had been sitting.

 _How?_ How had he come and gone and she hadn’t heard a sound? That bastard.

She lit a fire. What else was she going to do? She wasn’t going to waste food. She was turning the fish on a spit when she heard him walk up. He had an additional four fish in his hands, which he held up passively.

“Calm down,” He said. “Just wanted to know if I could borrow your fire. I brought more fish, you can have these two.” He held out the two in his left arm, the ones with the scars.

Not for the first time, his scars caught her attention. Quick as a flash, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him forward to examine the scars more closely.

“Hey!” He squawked. She ignored him and turned his arm this way and that, looking at the channels and grooves and dents in the skin. Her kind had no concept of art, but this was the closest approximation she could conceive. The patterns were eye catching and intricate, like a system of rivers.

He watched her examine his arm with heavy reservations. “Plane crash,” he explained. “I was a pretty decent pilot in my youth, maybe a little showy. It’s probably how this happened in the first place.” He shrugged his left arm a little, but didn’t attempt to extract it from her grip. “I was taking a squad to a dead zone out over what’s left of the Cayman Islands, and we got shot out of the air. To this day, we don’t know who did it and why, all I know is I woke up surrounded by charred metal and dead bodies with half of me on fire. That was about it for my flying days.”

She traced it up his arm and over his neck to his face and around his eye with her long fingers. He looked awkward and discomfited, but didn’t stop her.

“It travels south, too, if you’re interested in seeing the full scope,” He said, trying to grin slyly despite being clearly uncomfortable with the contact.

She snorted and released him, turning the spit again and spearing the four new fish on their own spit.

They sat in silence as the fish cooked. She noticed him glancing at her surreptitiously, realizing that when she reached forward, the drape over her breasts moved enough that it exposed her momentarily. She laughed to herself as she reached back and unlatched the clasp on the collar, removing it and tossing it aside. If he wanted to look, she was going to give him an unobstructed view.

He raised his eyebrows and glanced at her face, which was still behind its mask, before taking a full ogle of her chest. Apparently satisfied with what he saw, he sat back with a smile and pulled out a flask of something, taking a sip and grimacing. He then held out the flask to Zee’Nith.

Hesitantly, she reached up and took off her mask, gauging his reaction. She assumed he had never seen one of her kind before. She’d been right; his eyes widened briefly when the mask came off and her face was revealed, but he recovered quickly.

“Nose ring, huh?” He quipped as she sniffed the flask’s contents and raised it tentatively to her mouth. “Wasn’t expecting that. Full of surprises, aren’t you, gal?”

 _Yeah, I am_ , she signed, knowing he couldn’t understand. He laughed anyway.

They ate their dinner together. Afterwards, Royce thanked her for the use of her fire and walked into the jungle. She felt… strangely empty when he left.

He returned the next morning to find her irritated, pacing and snorting.

“What’s up?” He asked.

 _You wouldn’t understand_ , she signed dismissively. She was antsy. She was supposed to be hunting, that’s why she was here. By conceding the hunt to Royce, she needed to move on to a new target. Not doing so was driving her crazy.

He stood in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders, the first time he’d ever touched her directly.

“Hey, what’s going on?” He said. “What’s wrong?”

She pointed to him, his gun, and the knife she had given him. Then pointed to her gun and out into the forest, and stood in an attack stance. She hoped he was following this pantomime, because unless he learned her gestures, he’d never understand.

“You need to hunt,” He said. “Is it a biological impulse or something?”

She nodded.

“Ah, I see,” He said. “Can I help?”

 _Help?_ Hunters hunted alone, that was the whole point. She shook her head.

“Alright,” He said, removing his hands from her shoulders. “I’m just saying, I patrolled this area and I know for a fact you’ll want the biggest, meanest, ugliest son of a bitch that was on that cargo ship. And I happen to know where he is.”

She had to admit, her interest was piqued. She crossed her arms expectantly.

“He’s on the far side of your territory,” Royce said. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

They trekked out from the campsite after she’d loaded up on weapons and he led her back out through the jungle. A few miles of hiking and she stopped to sniff the air. She could smell something huge and angry. Yes. This is what she needed to sate her bloodlust. She motioned for Royce to stop.

“What?” He asked.

 _Wait here_ , she signed.

“Wait?” He said. “Are you nuts? You haven’t seen this thing yet, it’s massive. You’re going to need my help.”

She shook her head again. _Wait._

Royce looked annoyed, but he sat himself on the ground and said, “Fine, whatever. Go get yourself killed, what do I care?”

She let her tail extend out of her body, and took off like a shot through the jungle, swiftly approaching the source of the scent. She slowed when she saw a clearing, and in the clearing was an enormous, scaly monstrosity, vivid green and covered in sharp spikes, easily ten times her size. _Perfect._

She made short work of it, startling Royce out of his sitting position by dragging the head behind her. The head alone was bigger than she was. She felt so much better.

“Damn!” He exclaimed.

 _He was not much of a challenge_ , she signed. _But he is the biggest I have ever killed. That counts for something._

He shrugged and shook his head, clearly still not comprehending. She sighed and jerked her head for him to follow, and he did.

Back at the campsite, she started the process of stripping the flesh from the skull and cleaning it, of which Royce assisted without being asked. After that was done, she placed it at the entrance of her tent with the mouth open, so that you had to walk into it’s jaws to reach the shelter inside. She was rather proud of her work.

“Looks great. Wouldn’t have pegged you for interior design, either.”

She didn’t understand what he was talking about, but she trilled happily.

“This, I think,” Royce said, reaching into a pocket on his vest and pulling out a small device she wasn’t familiar with. “Calls for a celebration.” He pressed a button, and a loud, grating sound played from the device. “It’s music. Do you guys not have music?” 

[[MORE]]

She shook her head, wincing. Was this supposed to be pleasant? It was practically noise pollution. It was a good thing her perimeter was so well defended or she’d worry about other creatures hearing it.

“Don’t like this one? Let’s try something else, then.” He pressed another button, and a slower, more docile tune played. This one wasn’t as noisy as the one before, but it was still irritating and served no purpose that to alert every predator within a half mile radius to their presence.

“You know, this makes me miss the military balls I used to attend when I was a newblood,” He said wistfully. “I was quite the dancer back then.” He scratched his chin in thought and held his hand out to her. “Wanna try?”

She chirruped in confusion. He rolled his eyes and took her hand and placed it on his shoulder, taking the other hand in his grip, then laid his hand on her hip. She warbled in alarm and tried to step back, but he locked his hands around her.

“Just follow me,” He said. “Watch my feet.”

With extreme misgivings, she looked down and saw his foot step backward, and she stepped forward to mirror his moves.

“Yeah, there you go,” He said. “Just follow my lead. Keep time with the tempo. It’s a waltz. Everyone thinks waltzes are hard, but it really isn’t. It’s just three steps.”

Zee’Nith had always been a lithe and graceful hunter, fluid and fearless, but she was far out of her depth here. She stepped on his feet more often than she stepped where she was supposed to, and although she was sure her claws were painful, he merely laughed.

“See?” He said brightly. “Not so hard, right?”

It was hard. She felt herself stumble and felt aggravated with herself. More than that, for the first time in her life she felt embarrassed. She tried to pull away, but his arms locked around her upper body, trapping her arms in his grip.

He stared at her face, which she assumed must be just as hideous to him as his had been to her when they first met, with interest, studying the contours of her face as though seeing it through a different lens.

She felt another strange emotion then, one she had not expected at all. Arousal.

She broke free of his grip and pushed him to the ground, climbing on top of him.

“What are you doing?” He asked, slightly winded and trying to push her off, but stopped when she began to sniff his hair and neck, pressing her face close. She admitted that his scent had always appealed to her, even as prey, but now there was a different pull than there had been before. It spoke to her body more now than it had when she was hunting.

Using the claws on her hands, she flicked the clasps holding his armored vest on and flung it away, leaving only a sleeveless undershirt beneath. She pulled it up over his head and threw it aside as well.

“What are you doing?” He asked again, only more softly. She sat straddling him, looking at the strange pink scar tissue on the left side and the brown skin of the right. Strangely, both sides had a different smell and feel. The scars were smooth and cool to the touch, and the brown skin was warm and covered in hair. She pressed her nose into the faultline between the two halves of his torso and inhaled both scents deeply, appreciating them at the same time.

He grabbed her and rolled, snatching off her collar and drape, letting her breasts shake free in the sunlight, bright pink and full. He gripped her thighs with his legs to keep her from bucking him off and let his hands roam her torso, feeling the hard skin and the bumps of the freckles, and the only soft part of her body, which was her chest. A surprisingly pleasant sensation to her, if unfamiliar. He bent to press his lips to her body, licking up the line between her breasts and kneading them, sucking a nipple into his mouth. She sang a quavering kind of groan, as if underwater.

She let him indulge himself for a few moments before grabbing him by the legs and throwing him face down on the jungle floor, pinning him with her arms while using her lower claws to kick off his trousers and shoes. It was messy work, and she scratched him a number of times, not that he seemed to mind. He reached back and untied the straps to her loincloth, which fell away, leaving them both completely exposed.

She stood up and he rolled, displaying a thick, engorged organ at the apex of his thighs. The scars did indeed extend the entire length of his left half, though thankfully didn’t seem to affect the part of his anatomy she was most interested in at the moment. She grabbed his legs and pulled him toward her, the maw on her face opening and dripping.

“Hey, watch the teeth,” He said as she lowered her head and took him into her mouth. She had no lips to wrap around it, instead letting her long, broad tongue do the work. He moaned and his leg twitched. Assuming that was good, she continued.

He grabbed the spikes at the back of her head and snatched her off of him, throwing her to the side. Scrambling back up, he knelt between her legs and trapped them open with his knees.

“Huh,” He said, studying the crux of her legs in fascinated frustration. “Well, this is a conundrum.”

She assumed he said that because he couldn’t see her opening. Like her tail, it was something hidden inside her, only to be opened and revealed when the time was right and it was needed. As he watched, it puckered and bloomed, pink and vibrant, opening outward and with waving edges like some alien orchid.

“Ah, I see,” He said, inserting a finger carefully as though he expected it to bite him. Zee’Nith trilled and purred at the sensation of a second finger joining the first, working themselves in and out of her. It felt good, but not good enough, she wanted more.

With the claw of her foot, she grabbed him by the neck and yanked him forward, using her hands to grab his hips and thrust him inside her without warning. He cried out and huffed as she thrust herself up into him with force. He met her thrusts with his own in the same ferocity.

He managed to squirm out of her grasp and turn her face down, lining himself up with her from behind and ramming into her with all the strength he had, and it was incredible. Her inner walls slammed shut against him and he shuddered at the contact. He was so hot inside her, and she was cool against him.

She struggled to get the upper hand and pin him back to the dirt to have her way with him, like she preferred, but after a moment, found herself losing the ability to think straight. The ecstasy was rising fast inside her and she was being swept away. All she could do was grip the grass and let him pound himself into her, grunting as she hissed. But she couldn’t let him get the better of her, not in this.

She summoned the part of her mind that wasn’t surrendering to the blissful haze he poured into her and used her legs to swipe him off his knees and to the ground.

“Ow!” He shouted, and she grabbed him by the throat and stood him up, pinning him against a tree by throwing her leg around him and it, pushing his girth back into her. He reached out and grabbed her throat in turn, his other hand gripping her breasts fit to bruise, and slapped the skin of their bodies together over and over as he smashed himself inside her, moaning and panting. She huffed and snarled as she grew close to the peak.

He was getting close too. He let go of her throat and breast and grabbed her hips, spearing himself into her with a velocity that was just edging the line of desperate, sweating and swearing through his gritted teeth. She also let him go, digging her claws into the bark of the tree behind his head to avoid crushing windpipe as she felt herself crash into a wall of pleasure. She shrieked, which faded into a warble, and then a rumbling purr as the crest ebbed out of her and left her feeling relaxed and boneless.

He was still thrusting, but not for long. He grunted sharply and the back of his head hit the tree with a loud thump as he released into her, his hips jerking and legs trembling. It took a full minute of jerking and gushing before his hips stilled and he relaxed against the tree.

She let go and stepped away, feeling his sticky fluids seep out of her and onto the ground. She looked down at it with interest. What an odd color and consistency.

“Well,” He wheezed, looking at the scratches and flowering bruises on his body. “That was a hell of a ride. Wanna go again after I rest up? I really liked that tongue thing you did. Maybe I can return the favor.”

She purred harder and pulled him up onto her back, carrying him into the tent to clean his wounds and put a healing balm on it with unusual tenderness, before climbing back onto him and riding him like he was her favorite stalker jet.

There was enough meat from her big kill that they didn’t need to go hunting for the next week, so they spent that time learning about each other, and not just their bodies. Royce made her sit down for several hours each day and explain her signing system to him. It took him some time, but he managed to learn enough in that week to be able to carry on a two sided conversation with her relatively easily.

They both enjoyed really rough sex, but much to Royce’s surprise, she seemed to enjoy aftercare, tending to the injuries Royce always managed to sustain. She’d often wash his body clean when it was over and cover it with a healing ointment like a massage, purring appreciatively as she traced the burns on his body. She had explained to him that her kind found scars beautiful. To her, they looked lovely and heroic, and that only someone with a strong will could have survived such a thing. She also liked to lay on top of him, feeling the warmth of his body on her own and purring into his chest. He never would have thought she’d be so… soft. She truly was full of surprises.

She wasn’t much for being taken care of, though, since she was fully capable of taking care of herself, but she did enjoy having him close by. She enjoyed talking to him, now that they could, and they learned about each other’s cultures and past. Much of their respective practices baffled the other, but they had enough common ground that they could at least find a happy medium.

That, and the sex. There was _so much sex_. Zee’Nith had a voracious sexual appetite, and while Royce was not as young as he used to be, he was more than happy to keep her sated if it meant keeping her from getting antsy or irritated. An irritated Zee was no fun to be around.

Finally, when they began to run out of food and were both suffering from severe soreness and bedroom injuries, they ventured out together in search of game. Zee’Nith had to admit that even though hunting with another was against her natural inclination, it was fun. They’d often compete to see who could take down the biggest prey. There was always a celebration afterward, regardless of who won, in which Royce always tried to show her a new type of dance, which she invariably failed to learn.

And then they finished the evening with a rousing night of bone-shattering sex. Even this was a competition to see who could come out on top, who could wrestle the other to the ground, how far they could bring the other to the cusp of climax only to pin them down and deny them. It was frustrating and infuriating and delicious and they both loved every second of it.

Weeks passed in this new bubble of happiness, working and living together, when she got a message on her long-range communicator that popped the bubble abruptly.

He noticed the change in her posture immediately. “What’s going on, Zee?” He asked.

 _They are coming_ , She signed.

“They who?”

_My people. I was allotted one year on this planet for my hunting, and time is nearly up. They are sending a Beta ship to retrieve me and the only other one of my kind left alive to take us back to the mothership._

“Wait, there’s another one of you here?” He said.

 _Yes_ , she signed, realizing she hadn’t thought of Tau’Rok once in all the time she and Royce had been shacked up together. How odd. She didn’t feel the same burning hatred for him that she had before. In anything, she was indifferent.

“So… is this good? Do you want to go back to the mothership?”

Zee’Nith couldn’t answer. She had to go back, she didn’t have a choice. She had obligations on the mothership that couldn’t be ignored. The time she had spent on this planet had ostensibly been a vacation, but there was work waiting for her when she returned, important work that she couldn’t just abandon.

But returning meant abandoning Royce, and she couldn’t decide if she wanted to do that anymore. She was… attached to him rather irrevocably at this point.

“Zee?” Royce crouched next to where she was kneeling, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Whatever happens will be bad news, either for you or for me, right?”

He was so insightful. He always had been, even back when she hated him. Zee’Nith nodded. _If I go, you must stay. If I stay, we both die._

“That’s bad news, yeah,” He said with a heavy sigh. He took her mask off and held her face in his hands. “So what do you want to do?”

She sat back on her heals and traced the scar on his ear for a moment before responding, _Mate with me._

Royce snorted. “Zee, we’ve been doing plenty of that recently, I don’t think that’s the answer.”

Zee’Nith shook her head. _No, not fornicate. Mate. I’m taking you as my mate, if you accept._

Royce’s eyebrows shot to his hairline. “Are you serious?”

She nodded.

“Are you _sure_?” He said uncertainly. “Don’t your kind think my kind are inferior?”

She nodded again, only this time it was begrudgingly. _You are different._

“No, I’m not,” He said seriously. “I’m not different just because I earned your respect. Having your affection doesn’t make me a brand new creature, Zee, I’m human. You don’t get to decide that I’m better than the rest of my race because you took a liking to me. That’s not how it works.”

She looked away, annoyed, but he was still holding her face and made her look back at him.

“You should go back,” He said sadly.

_What? No! I don’t want to go! I don’t want to leave you here! You’re my mate!_

“I’m not, Zee, I can’t be. This isn’t a Romeo and Juliet situation.”

 _I do not know what that means._ She replied. _In any event, I do not care. I want you. If I have to die to be with you, so be it._

“I’m not okay with that,” He said tersely. “You were doing fine before you met me, you’ll do fine when I’m gone. I was dead the minute they dropped me on this planet, but we don’t both have to die. You don’t need me.”

 _You are correct,_ She said. _I do not need you, but I want you. I do not care what I had before, I want you now. Whether or not you decide to be my mate, I shall never take another. And I will not leave._

“You’ll die,” He said, shaking her head a little.

_I do not care._

“This isn’t like you,” He said, narrowing his eyes.

_I am capable of change._

“Please,” He said, pulling her head down against his shoulder. “You can’t do this. Don’t commit suicide for me.”

She pushed him back so that he could see her hands. _You are the only thing worth dying for._

He stared at her in disbelief. The arrangement of her face made kissing her lips impossible, so he placed an open mouthed kiss on her broad forehead, moving down her face and to her body.

They went into the tent and stripped each other, touching every square inch of each other’s body before ravaging each other. While it was not gentle, it wasn’t with the normal air of competition. It was purpose-driven and intense in an entirely different way. They knew, when they finally lay spent in each other’s arms, that they would be bound by chains that could not be severed, even by death.

The Beta ship was due in eight weeks time. Zee’Nith had a tracking chip embedded in her skin that she needed Royce to extract delicately, but even without it, it wouldn’t be long before they found her. They were a tracking species, it’s what they did. All Royce and Zee’Nith could hope for was to live the next few weeks in peace. So they lived as they had been up to that point, hunting together and worshiping each other’s bodies and sharing their lives for as long as they were able.

One day, five weeks before the arrival of the ship, they were tracking separate prey when she heard his strangled scream echo through the jungle. Her hearts thudded in her chest as she rushed to find him writhing on the ground, the delicate pink of his scars as red as a desert flower. He was clawing at his left size and howling in pain.

She looked around her for the culprit and found him lying on top of it. A preonis plant, rare but highly poisonous and incredibly lethal, the pod of which exploded when it felt motion. Royce must have accidentally brushed against it.

Shrieking in panic, she lifted him in her arms and took him to the nearest river, laying him in the cool water to wash the spores from his skin. If he inhaled them, though, there wasn’t much she could do. His screaming subsided to wheezy panting, and he looked up at here desperately.

_What have you done, you stupid man?_

“Sorry,” He wheezed, and then vomited black spores into the grass and lost consciousness.

She let out a high-pitched chirrup of anxiousness and turned him so he wouldn’t choke. She took him back to camp and laid him in their cot, stripping him of his clothes and wiping down his body. He was limp and pasty, growing paler by the minute, except for the scarring, which grew steadily more red, swollen, and extremely hot.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes and lashed out with incredible strength, striking her in the abdomen and hurling her outside while still naked.

“You bitch!” He snarled. “This is your fault! If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here! I’d be home and happy! I’d be doing my job and living my life and not in this stupid jungle with a hideous monster!”

What? What was he saying? She tried to wrest herself from his grip and saw his eyes, glazed and angry.

Suddenly his eyes cleared, and a look of horror crossed his face. He let go of her immediately and backed up with his hands raised in apology.

“I’m sorry,” He whispered. “I’m so sorry, Zee, I didn’t mean that, I don’t know why I said it. I’m sorry.” He fell to his knees. She came forward to help him back to his feet, but he pushed her back.

“Stay away!” He yelled. “I don’t want to kill you.” He fell forward and passed out.

She carried him back to the cot and went out again, dismantling several of the anchor traps and taking the cables from them. She wrapped them in thick animal hide so they wouldn’t cut his skin, and then covered him in furs and restrained him. She watched him sleep, rasping in difficult breaths, completely at a loss of what to do except sponge off the sweat and wait for him to wake.

She knew a decent amount about the preonis plant, having encountered it once before, using it to slow down a particularly aggressive target in the past. She knew the spores were extremely painful, but it _was_ possible to survive skin contact. Inhaling the spores, however, was 100% fatal and there was no antidote of which she was aware. Death wouldn’t be quick, either. Royce was in for a long, excruciating end, and Zee’Nith was unprepared to watch him die.

She had taken him as a mate with the understanding they would die together. Him dying first wasn’t part of the plan. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

His eyes fluttered open, and he searched the room until he found her face. He tried to sit up before realizing he was tied down and chuckled.

“I messed up, didn’t I?” He asked weakly.

 _Yes, you did._ She replied. _What were you thinking?_

“I didn’t expect a plant to attack me,” He said. “You gotta admit, that was a dirty sneak attack.”

_Are you really going to joke at a time like this?_

“Jokes are all I am, baby,” He said with a smile, which wilted quickly. “I’m sorry about what I said. I don’t think you’re hideous.”

 _Of course you do_ , She said, running the back of her claws gently down his cheek. _And I have always found you disgusting. But that has never been an issue for us, has it? I still care for you. You are still my mate, regardless of your appearance._

“Maybe,” he said, frowning. “But I don’t think you’re a monster, and I don’t regret being here with you, Zee. I love you.”

That was a strange word, love. Was that the name of the unfamiliar, bitter pain she was feeling? Did all humans experience this anguish? If so, they were a far stronger race than she gave them credit for.

 _Sleep, dear one_ , she said to him, laying a clawed hand on his brow. _Rest. I will search for a remedy._

He closed his eyes obediently and drifted back into unconsciousness. She cooed at him and stroked his hair, fearful to leave him lest he die in his sleep while she was gone. But she couldn’t keep sitting there like a dead leaf on a tree. She needed action. Chirping at him softly as a promise to return, she went out and began her search.

Weeks passed in terror and agony. When he wasn’t unconscious, he either woke in a rage, spitting vitriol at her and struggling against his bonds, or he was lethargic and unable to keep any food down, throwing up blood and bile and a black, oily tar in addition to anything she tried to feed him. All she could do was watch him waste away and keen mournfully over his prone body, hugging him as close to her as she was able in his restraints.

All her research had come up empty and she was running out of options. She had to do something, and she knew exactly what it was, as distasteful as she found it to be. The next time Royce was lucid, she sat down to explain her plan.

“You look serious,” He said with a weak grin. “Who’s dying?”

 _Dear one, please_ , She signed in exasperation. _I have to go and see someone._

His smile evaporated instantly. “You’re leaving?”

_I will not be gone long, less than a day. But there is only one being who could have the answer._

“The other one, right?” He asked.

She nodded. _He took a human mate once. I… I used to follow them, and I overheard them talking about the plant. I never heard if they found the antidote, but he may know something that can give us a clue. It is the only thing I can think to do. I swear I will return to you._

“Bend down,” He whispered.

She knelt close and he kissed her brow, laying his own against her cheek.

“Just come back,” He said. “I don’t want to die alone.”

_If I find what I’m looking for, you won’t die at all._

“Other than at the hands of your kinsman, you mean?”

She chuffed helplessly. _I suppose. Sleep now. I will have returned before you know it._

“Promises, promises,” He said, closing his eyes. “Love you.”

She didn’t have a sign for _I love you_ , and even if she did, he was already asleep.

Tracking Tau’Rok was unnecessary: he was camped in the same place he had been when he had sent his human mate home. Despite her making the same mistake of taking a human mate, she still felt resentment toward Tau’Rok and the idea of asking for his help made her skin crawl.

He was sitting outside of his tent, staring into his campfire and did not rise or acknowledge her when she approached. She was shocked at his appearance. He was skeletal and frail, looking as if he hadn’t eaten in all the months his human had been gone. He wore no weapons or armor, only a dirty loincloth around his bony waist. He seemed far older than he had been months ago. His skin was sallow, ashy, and withered on his frame. He was a sorry thing to look at. She almost drew her weapon to put him out of his misery, but she resisted.

 _What are you doing here, you cur?_ He asked, the hatred apparent in the violence of his hand gestures.

 _I need your help, Tau’Rok_ , she signed back.

He snorted. _Why should I lift a finger to assist you in any way?_

_I… I have taken a human mate._

It was only then that he looked up from the fire. _You hypocrite. Because of you, I’ll never see my mate or child again, and yet you stand there and judge me and beg for my help in the same glance? You utter fool._

 _I_ have _been a fool, Tau’Rok. I am sorry._

He stood and walked toward her, narrowing his eyes. _Did you just apologize? Our kind do not do such things._

_Our kind make mistakes._

_So they do_ , he signed slowly. _So they do._

_My mate has come into contact with the preonis plant._

_Did they inhale the spores?_

_Yes. He is dying._

He scratched his face with his claws. _My mate and I were experimenting with the plant before you drove her away. There is a rare animal that has a den a day or two from here. We believed the liver of this animal contains an enzyme that neutralizes the spore, but we didn’t have time to do any definitive tests._

 _Now is as good a time as any. Will you come back to my camp with me?_ She asked.

His head cocked back. _Why would I do that?_

_If I’m going to be away for days tracking this animal, I need someone to stay with him. I will owe you a great debt._

_You already owe me a great debt,_ he signed, his expression sour and sorrowful.

 _Yes_ , she admitted. _You are right, Tau’Rok_.

He sighed and picked up his particle weapon. _Let’s get on with it, then._

They reached her campsite to find him screaming against his restraints.

_Is he aggressive often?_

_Increasingly so_ , she replied,

 _You are running out of time, then. I will stay with him. Hurry and find this creature._ He held out a data pad and she saw a small, blue, squirrel-like animal, except its tail was made of teeth.

She ran. She ran with the weight of Royce’s life on her shoulders, and never before had she felt so heavy. It took nearly six days to track it down, but she found it, an overly-combative rodent no bigger than the palm of her hand with bright blue bio-luminescent antennae. Killing it was simple, getting its liver out was less so, but she finally had it.

She made it back to camp to find Tau’Rok wrestling Royce to the ground. Royce had somehow managed to fray the hides around the cords and they were cutting into his skin. He was frothing at the mouth and shouting incoherently at Tau’Rok. Zee’Nith had no choice but to tackle him before he could injure himself further and forcefeed him the liver.

 _We hadn’t done any tests on that!_ Tau’Rok said furiously. _It was only a theory!_

 _We don’t have time for tests!_ Zee’Nith retorted. Royce was trying to spit up the liver, but Zee’Nith held it in his mouth and forced it down his throat, making him swallow water to chase it.

She sat on him, pinning his arms and legs to the ground, for what felt like hours, and he screamed and shouted and bucked against her the entire time, telling her horrible things, but she closed her ears to them and pressed her forehead to his thrashing one. The coolness of her skin against the heat of his fevered flesh settled him slightly, and he panted heavily from the exertion.

Finally, she saw his eyes clear again, and he looked at her, not with hate and anger, but with that soft look he got when they were alone together.

“Zee,” He said with the shadow of a smile. “You’re back. I missed you.”

It was a good thing her species was incapable of tears, because she’d be sobbing otherwise.

The enzyme worked slowly. Royce was no longer feverish or aggressive, but he was very weak and had trouble keeping food or drink down. Tau’Rok stayed to help care for him, but as Royce improved, Tau’Rok made ready to return to his own camp.

 _They are coming, Tau’Rok_ , Zee’Nith told him one night over a shared meal as Royce rested in the tent.

 _I know_ , Tau’Rok said, tearing a strip of meat from the seared leg he held.

_What will you do? Are you going back?_

_Like this?_ He said, throwing his arms wide and gesturing to himself. _They would not have me like this. More than likely, they would leave me here or kill me where I stood._

 _I no longer wish to return, either_ , she said. _But I do not know if they will allow both of us to stay._

Tau’Rok shrugged.

 _Will you stay here with us in the camp?_ She asked.

 _What purpose would that serve?_ He replied.

_If I am taken back by force, they may try to kill Royce. You two could… protect each other when I am gone._

_No,_ Tau’Rok signed, shaking his head. _You will not make me responsible for your own weakness. I have lost my mate and offspring because of you. You will not force me to coddle yours._ Tau’rok stood abruptly, hauling up his weapon. _It is time I left. They will arrive soon._

With that, he disappeared into the jungle, leaving Zee’Nith sitting at the fire, staring into it with apprehension.

The day dawned when the ship arrived far sooner than they thought. In fact, for a Beta ship, it was so massive that it blotted out the sun. Royce and Zee’Nith stood on the crest of a hill and watched as it hovered over them, looking for an ideal place to land.

As the ship started to descend into a clearing nearly two thousand yards away, Royce turned to her and said, “You know, humans have sign languages, too.”

_You do?_

“Yep,” He said, nodding.

_How do you say them, then?_

“Say what?”

_The words you say to me at night, when we sleep, when we part, when we mate. Those words._

“Do you mean ‘I love you?’”

She nodded.

He smiled, and pointed at himself, then crossed his forearms over his chest as if embracing an invisible person, and then pointed at her.

“I. Love. You.”

She mimicked him, finally able to return his sentiment in a way they could both understand.

_I love you._

“I know, honey,” He said, smiling gently.

A blast of hot air met them as the ship touched down in the distance. They took each other’s hand as the hatch opened and a blinding white light bathed them in its glow. 


End file.
